TV News Roundup: BBC Releases Trailer For Dickensian

BBC One has unveiled a trailer for its epic Charles Dickens series, Dickensian, ahead of its premiere on Boxing Day. The new series brings together many of Dickens’ most iconic characters in Victorian London, with Scrooge rubbing shoulders with Miss Havisham and The Old Curiosity Shop next door to The Three Cripples Pub. The twenty episode series comes from Tony Jordan (Life On Mars) and stars Peter Firth (Spooks), Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta), Tuppence Middleton (Sense8), Caroline Quentin (Men Behaving Badly) and Pauline Collins (Mount Pleasant), among many others.

BBC One has renewed its hit series Call The Midwife for a sixth series. The announcement comes before the fifth series has even premiered, confirming that the program, based on the memoirs of a district midwife in the East End of London in the 1950s, will be on our screens until 2017.

HBO has ordered a third and final season of The Leftovers. Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, it tells the story of a world forever changed after the Rapture which has wiped out almost two percent of the world’s population. The second season saw a major shake up, with the action relocating from New York to a small Texan town that has somehow managed to remain relatively unchanged by the apocalypse.

ITV have released a trailer for their new drama Jericho. Set in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1870s, it follows the small community of Jericho – a group of pioneers brought to live together in the shadow of a viaduct they’ve been hired to build. The period drama has been created by Steve Thompson (Sherlock) and stars Jessica Raines (Call The Midwife), Hans Matheson (Sherlock Holmes) and Clarke Peters (The Wire).

ITV have also announced that Tom Hughes (The Game) has been cast as Prince Albert in their upcoming epic drama Victoria, about the life of the young monarch.

Fox has renewed its event series Wayward Pines for a second season, with showrunner Chad Hodge (The Playboy Club) set to depart. The new season will pick up after the events of the series one finale and find the residents of Wayward Pines fighting to preserve the human race.

Finally, Showtime have ordered new seasons of Homeland and The Affair. Both shows will return in 2016, Homeland for its sixth season and The Affair for its third.